It has been 102 years since the HILTON hotel company was founded in the USA, specifically in Dallas, Texas, in 1919.
Today, Hilton is one of the leading multinational hotel companies in the world, with 584 hotels in 94 countries.
The Hilton Athens Hotel was inaugurated in 1963. Its construction marked the country’s entry into the global luxury tourism market, being itself a symbol of the economic, cultural and social development of the time.
The original purpose of the building was to be a state-of-the-art hotel unit that would surpass any other in size and technology. Its construction, however, was the cause of much discussion about the aesthetic integrity of the intervention, as it was referred to as a “skyscraper” that came into conflict with the then dominant Acropolis. In particular, it was considered by many to be the “most beautiful Hilton in the world”, but on the other hand, by as many, as a vandalism against the historic landscape of the city.
The matchbox collection features matcheboxes from 36 different Hilton locations in different countries.